A Lonely Flake of Snow

Waking up to the blaring, loud, buzzing alarm on the digital clock, after what little sleep a fourteen year old teenage girl who lived alone in a small, dingy apartment complex could muster, Hannah wasn’t exactly a pretty sight in the morning (although her dozens of would-be boyfriends who she rejected would probably disagree).

Groaning from lingering exhaustion, and from sore muscles everywhere in her body, Hannah crawled out of her warm, comfortable bed, wincing as her toes touched the freezing, moist carpet floor. Each and every second from when she had stood up, she regretted leaving the fuzzy, welcoming feeling she had under her blanket.

Walking to the mirror in the bathroom, and seeing the disgusted expression worn by her reflected image, as though her reflection hated to see such a horrid creature, she put a hand to the ice like tap, and turned on the hot (or, rather, the not-as-cold) water. She scooped a handful of the clear liquid, and splashed it over her face.

She dried her face with the dirty hand towel, and reached for her tooth brush to brush her teeth. She didn’t exactly enjoy the idea of having yellow teeth, rotting away at the age of fourteen, even if she cared little about her appearance.

Hannah washed her hair, of course. Compared to her classmates, it was a simple task, since she didn’t have to use the mountains of hair products they had to, given her apathy towards her appearance. That, and the fact that she had shorter hair.

After getting changed out of her pajamas, and into her school uniform (which she didn’t have time to properly button), she glanced back to the mirror.

“Much better,” her reflection said. “Although, something seems to be missing.”

Placing a finger thoughtfully to her chin, she tilted her head to compare the images of her reflection every other morning. The instant she realized what it was, she snapped her fingers.

“That’s it!” she exclaimed, energetically, a completely changed person to the morning slob she was only minutes ago, as she picked out the old, worn out metal hair clip, and clasped it into her hair, giving herself an asymmetric hairstyle. “Now you’re ready to get on with the day!”

Nodding decisively to her reflection, she left the bathroom, and started to toast a slice of bread. Waiting for the bread to finish toasting, whilst trying to properly button up her shirt, and zip up her jacket, she caught a glimpse outside the window, and the slow, pitter-patter of water droplets tapping lightly at her apartment’s transparent wall.

“Huh… it’s raining today. That wasn’t on the weather forecast,” she thought aloud, with a hint of disappointment in her voice. She detected that disappointment, and quickly changed her tone. “Ah well. I needed a shower anyway.”

She took a glance at the old digital alarm clock that woke her up so noisily this morning.

“Good grief! It’s half-past six already!?”

She flicked the button on the toaster, and caught the slab of toast in mid air, whilst simultaneously grabbing the keys from the counter, and sprinting for the door in haste.

“I really need to learn to set that alarm earlier!”

She made her way to the elevator, and pressed the ‘down’ button. After what seemed like an eternity, the electric ‘ding’ sound rang, and the elevator door opened, revealing to be completely empty.

After what seemed like a few more eternities, the elevator reached the ground floor, four stories below where she lived.

The instant the elevator door reopened, she bolted out of the apartment building, and went for the bike shed. The constant knocking of raindrops on the metal roof didn’t really help ease her haste.

“Oh! I’m going to be so late!” she muttered, as she paddled wildly on the bicycle lane through the urban streets, shoving her mouth full with the half eaten toast as she did so. Good thing that in the morning, there weren’t many cars, she could ride as fast as she could whilst turning, without the fear of crash. Of course, the rain didn’t help her vision, nor her riding skills.

“Why did my parents have to enroll me to a place so far from my apartment?!”

She was thinking this thought repeatedly for near of an hour, before she could spot her school in the distance, despite the heavy rainfall.

‘The rain makes things so hard to see…’ was what went through her mind. Ironically, it was this same thought that distracted her for those few seconds she had just after she took a turn.

She didn’t notice at first, from the very rainfall she had just mentally complained about, but about a millisecond before collision, she noticed a boy, wearing the same black and white school uniform as she did.

“Look out!” She warned an instant to late, as what followed immediately afterwards were a crash, thud, and a flip of her bicycle, throwing her into the air, and then letting her land painfully onto the wet, concrete footpath.

“Ow… not the best acrobatics I’ve done in my life…” she commented, as she sat upright, rubbing her forehead. “Oh!” she stood up quickly, and ran towards the boy on the floor, and her collapsed bike. “Are you alright?” she asked out of genuine concern. “I’m so sorry… I didn’t see you… I mean… I wasn’t really thinking with my eyes in front of me, and the rain…”

The boy ignored her entire monologue apology, and allowed the hand she offered him the same amount of attention. He simply crawled up from his position, dripping wet, scarred and bruised. A scowl on his face.

Hannah searched the floor, and hurriedly picked up the boy’s schoolbag from the floor, and held it out to him. “Here. It’s a little wet, but I’m sure it’s okay…”

He ignored her comment, and calmly took the bag away from her before she had finished her statement, and turned away from her, and started to walk towards the school, his head lowered dejectedly.

He didn’t say a word of thanks, apology, or so much as recognition of Hannah’s existence. He just left her there, bemused.

It took her half a minute to properly reorganize her thoughts. “Kya! I’m going to be late for class!”

She lifted her bike, and continued to paddle furiously towards the school.

--

“Phew!”

She allowed herself to collapse into the chair near the dark, quiet corner of the classroom. Her aching nerves and muscles seemed to sigh with equal relief the instant she sat down.

“I really need to find somewhere closer to school to live…” she whispered to no one in particular.

And, of course, no one answered back. No one always would answer back.

Everyone was scattered into their little friend groups all across the classroom, chatting away with each other for the last three minutes before the bell rang. Nobody paid any attention to the girl who transferred in half-way through the second term. Nobody really knew her, and didn’t need to anymore. Their little social groups had all formed already.

Of course, occasionally someone would glance or gesture to her direction. Rumor had it that she has rejected every boy in the school that asked her out.

It was true, of course. She didn’t really have the time to go out with anyone, and frankly, she was quite disinterested in those people who did ask her out. They were generally looking at her for her appearance, and because everyone else above her in the ‘prettiness’ ranking scale was taken. She knew none of their names, and none of them knew hers.

She smiled weakly. ‘That’s just the way they are, I guess.’

--

“Class! I have some excellent news!”

The entire class stirred expectantly at the teachers words. What was it that he had to say? Do they get a day off? Is the homework assignment cancelled? Are they going to go on a field trip? All sorts of ideas flew by the minds of the students.

“We have a new student transferring in today!” he said, trying his best to convince both the class, and himself that this was, indeed, good news.

He didn’t succeed, of course, as the atmosphere in the room immediately deflated, like a popped balloon. Everyone was quite disappointed to hear that that was supposed to be the excellent news.

Well. That was, everyone but Hannah.

Her mind whirred, as she started to speculate. Maybe she could be friends with this new transfer student! After all, the rest of the class definitely wouldn’t. She and the new transfer student would have so much in common! Both would be rejected by the rest of the class, but at least they would have each other. Which was a lot more than what Hannah had to work with when she first transferred in.

The whole class fell silent as the class door slammed open, as though pushed by a great wind. An odd, chilling sensation flowed through the room, and everyone’s attention turned to see who stood at the door.

Hannah’s jaw dropped at the sight of who it was.

It was the boy she crashed into this morning.

He was still rather wet from the crash, and rainfall, Hannah saw. This time, she got a proper look at his appearance.

‘I must say,’ Hannah thought, ‘the uniform, and the wetness kind of suits him.’

Indeed, the uniform seemed to match the rest of the boy’s appearance. Black hair, black eyes, black jacket, black shorts, black shoes, as to the white polo shirt, white socks… but above all, his eerie, ghostly pale skin. The two opposite colours contrasted each other, giving him an almost glowing, phantom like appearance.

He walked into the room slowly, as though each step was a greatly agonizing effort. His expression wore the same dark scowl he had earlier in the morning.

“Err… class. This is Frederic…”

The teacher searched the roll for a surname, although he failed to find it. All it had was a handwritten name in dark, blackish red ink ‘Frederic.’

The boy, Frederic, did not as much as glance as the teacher. Instead, he turned his gaze slowly around the room, as though searching for something. Searching for someone.

“Frederic. Please take the seat at the back corner, next to the window,” the teacher gestured to the empty desk beside Hannah’s, right by the window.

Hannah sat upright, flustering slightly. ‘He’s sitting next to me! What do I say?’

Frederic walked ominously towards the desk the teacher gestured to, and sat down in a slow, nearly mechanical motion.

“Now, everyone get out their English books, and turn to… let’s see… page 121 to 124 please!”

The instant the teacher finished, the class started to make the routine noise they always do. Take out your books slowly, grab a pen, and talk to the person sitting behind you about the idle small talk that neither person really cares about.

Hannah got out her book and a pen, and shot a nervous glance at the boy, Frederic. He pulled out a book slowly, and laid it onto the desk, flipping the pages. Pages that happened to be wet. Which, of course, didn’t make Hannah any more comfortable talking to the boy.

“Hey Frederic. How are you?” She managed to ask, just as he put his pen onto the paper. He ignored her completely as he started to scribble onto the drenched pages.

“I’m Hannah, by the way. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I transferred earlier this year too. I hope we could get along, since most of our classmates ignore me.”

Despite her open, cheerful attitude, Frederic did not so much as glance up from his page. His expression still unchanged from the scowl which she first saw him with.

‘Is he a workaholic?’ Hannah though, as she glanced at his page. When she did, she was completely taken aback.

‘He’s nearly finished already! And his handwriting is so neat!’ she looked at her own page, and added, ‘neater than mine! And I’m a girl!’

Not long after she made the mental comment, his pen fell onto his desk, his book closed, and he turned his gaze out the window. Completely ignoring Hannah’s presence, as well as the rest of the class.

Hannah fiddled awkwardly with her pen for a moment, before she decided to at least finish her work first. It didn’t seem like Frederic was going to open up any time soon.

Half an hour into the lesson, the teacher being too busy working with students at the front to notice the ruckus happening at the back, a paper airplane flew right past Hannah’s head, catching her attention, before smacking onto the back of Frederic’s head.

Hannah shot a glance at the boys who threw the paper airplane, who seemed to shrug in an apologetic manner. One of them stood up, and casually walked over to Frederic, picking up the paper plane.

“Hey, new guy!” He said. “Sorry about that. Wasn’t aiming for you.” He held out his hand half-heartedly to Frederic, in a peace offering.

Frederic turned his gaze slowly from the window, closing his eyes, and sighed in irritation. Hannah almost smiled, as she somehow managed to picture what would happen next.

The boy took a few paces back, as Frederic glared at him silently. This glare wasn’t normal, though. It had no soul behind it. It was pure hatred and anger filled, speaking far more than rage filled anger ever could.

“Sorry… I’ll just… go now…” he managed to stutter out, before turning back and hurriedly going back to his desk.

Hannah giggled quietly to herself. ‘Should have seen that coming!’ she thought. Her giggling soon stopped, however, when she felt that same malicious glare directed at her.

She took a quick look into Frederic’s eyes, and turned away immediately, unable to meet the cold, piercing gaze.

“Sorry…” she whispered. The feeling seemed to vanish.

When Hannah glanced back, Frederic had continued to stare out the window, towards the grey storm clouds.

For the rest of the lesson, Hannah remained silent, not daring to disrespect Frederic’s quiet, endless gaze into the outside world, for fear that the gaze would be shifted onto her. Word had spread around the class already of Frederic’s icy stare, and nobody else had tried to talk to him for the remaining half hour. They’d only glance at him, unsure of what to make of him, before whispering to their friends about their views on the boy.

When the bell rung, it seemed to have relieved Hannah of a mountain of pressure, as her shoulders instantly felt lighter. Quickly packing her books into her bag, she stood up, and started to make off for the first period break. She didn’t have anywhere to go, really, but anywhere but here would be fine.

“Ah! I forgot my pen!” she thought aloud. She turned back into the classroom to get it, making her way back to her desk beside Frederic. Her pen had fallen just in front of his desk.

“Sorry… I dropped my pen…” she whispered, as she bent over and picked up the slim plastic artifact she came to get. Of course, as before, he didn’t pay her any attention whatsoever.

But before Hannah turned to leave, she decided to glance at what Frederic was staring at. ‘There’s nothing there…’

Then she turned to see his face, on the verge of telling him the thought she just had.

But she couldn’t make out the words. She was completely blown away by Frederic’s face. His gaze, unlike before, so cold and malicious… it was dejected… tired… worn out… searching the sky endlessly for the target he longed for… looking far into the distance, beyond the clouds, beyond the sky, beyond space and time for something of absolute significance to him… something he knew he would never find…

He looked sad.